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The year 2014 was an extremely hard year for me.... JANUARY 2014:I lost my 86-year mother to a 10-year journey with Parkinson's - - - with the last 3 years in which she also suffered from Alzheimer's. She was so kind, loved to draw and paint. She volunteered as a 4-H advisor and a Girl Scout leader....always sharing her love of art with the children of our community. JULY 2014:After an 8-year battle, I lost my loving husband of 44 years to Frontal Temporal Dementia. An alum of The Ohio State University with a degree in Histo

My journey began in 2002 when I recognized that my mother leaving a key ingredient out of a recipe she had made literally hundreds of times was not just a singular event. She had also lost her way while driving in the small town where she had always lived but my father was hiding the reality how bad her memory had become. She fell the year before and an ER physician discovered a non-cancerous tumor on her brain. A trusted friend and neuro-surgeon felt certain the tumor needed to be removed and so we agreed to the surgery.

Jim retired from the work world where he was a lab technician at age 62 as soon as he could. He then began a second “career” as a volunteer working for peace and justice through our church and as a volunteer aide in an urban school—every day—all day for sixteen years.

He expressed concern about his memory four or five years before that day in early 2007 when he was diagnosed with early onset of “Alzheimer’s like” dementia.